SECTION B. MEMBERSHIP
Eligibility for membership in a component county medical society shall be determined by that society. However, all county medical societies shall utilize a universal membership application form which shall be approved by the Council. Component county medical societies shall act upon the receipt of a membership application in a timely manner not to exceed sixty days. A former student member of the Medical Society of the State of New York shall be permitted to convert to resident member status through his local county medical society during the first post-graduate year in an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) approved residency training program upon payment of county and state society dues and provision of an updated information form. Except by the approval of the Council, no physician shall be an active member in a component county medical society other than that of the county in which said physician works or maintains legal residence.
Whenever an active member in good standing or a life member in any component county medical society removes to another county in this State, said member’s name on such request shall be transferred to the roster of the component county medical society of the county to which said member removes, without cost to said member, provided that the member is in good standing and communicates his or her wishes to one of the county medical societies affected, or to the Medical Society of the State of New York.
A transfer will be presumed to be approved unless the county medical society in which the member seeks to participate notifies MSSNY in writing that acceptance has been delayed.
Determinations as to the portion of the member’s annual dues payable to each of the affected county societies shall be based on the number of quarters for which each county society has provided or will provide service to the member. If the transfer is requested after dues notices have gone out for the year, the physician should pay the county dues amount billed, and the county medical societies will determine the portion of county dues to which each organization is entitled.
Where there is significantly lower dues rate in the county society to which the member is transferring than is charged in the county from which the member is leaving, the affected county societies shall attempt to work out an agreement acceptable to the member.
If the county societies are not able to resolve the question of county society dues to the satisfaction of the member within 45 days of the transfer request, MSSNY will record the transfer and send the physician a dues statement for the lower of the two county medical society’s dues rates.
No physician shall be granted membership by any county medical society in any category of membership which has been created for the benefit of physicians who neither reside nor work in such county, unless and until such county medical society verifies, with the Medical Society of the State of New York, the fact that the applicant currently holds either active, junior, or life membership in another county of this State. This requirement applies with equal force whether the category of membership on the local county medical society level be designated “associate membership” “affiliate membership,” “corresponding membership,” “nonresident membership” or by any similar designation.
No member shall be an active member of more than one component county medical society, nor shall any component county medical society accept as a member a physician who does not work or have a residence in that county in any other way than in accordance with the law governing transfers.
Every component county medical society shall provide for membership for graduates of recognized medical or osteopathic schools who are in residency training or who otherwise qualify for Resident membership in accordance with Article II of these Bylaws. The constitution and/or bylaws of the component county medical society shall provide that residents shall be eligible for membership whether or not they are duly licensed and registered to work in the State of New York. The resident members will have all the rights and privileges of active membership. Dues and assessments for the members in residency training shall be not more than one-tenth the amount levied on all other active members.
Except by the approval of the Council, no resident may be a member in a component county medical society other than that of the county where the resident is in residency training or where the resident maintains a legal residence.
